BILL RICHARDS	Bill Richards, Impromptu 1, 1997, graphite on paper, 18 x 20 inches
Bill Richards, Impromptu 3, 1997, graphite on paper, 17 x 17 inches	Bill Richards' graphite drawings are a celebration of the intimist's view of nature and landscape, particularly of fern-covered swamps, and close-in views of the ground covered in leaves, branches and twigs. Spanning more than five years of the artist's work, the drawings are silvery gray in appearance, looking somewhat like silver point in their fineness.
There is little trace of gesture in these fully harmonized pieces. Richards eschews crosshatch in favor of an overall velvety smooth patina as he loses himself in the process of drawing.	Bill Richards, Impromptu 4, 1997, graphite on paper, 17 x 17 inches
Bill Richards, Impromptu 5, Peony, 1998, graphite on paper, 18 x 20 inches	On his larger drawings, measuring approximately 12x18 inches, the artist spends about ten months developing the image of fern swamps or boggy marshland. He works in small sections, one at a time from left to right, fine tuning the piece at the end of his meditative process. In composition, the drawings bear some relationship to the devel-opment of a work in music. In Richards' newest drawing, Autumn Fugue, grasses, weeds, ferns, leaves interweave in a thick and rich tapestry. Its values are close, a symphony of silvery grays as light gently bathes the surface of leaves.
The viewer does not see a horizon line, nor does Richards impose boundaries on his continuous field of nature; there is no beginning and no end to its span. Left and right, top and bottom, the earth is densely covered with entwining plants and leaves, through which one peers to catch a glimpse of moist earth. From afar, the drawing has an abstract quality, the swing and sway of a linear composition. As one approaches the work, the detail of nature's abundance, the ground cover with myriad variation and detail, envelops the viewer.	Bill Richards, Impromptu 6, Morning Glory, 1998, graphite on paper, 20 x 18 inches
Bill Richards, Impromptu 7, Morning Glory, 1998, graphite on paper, 20 x 18 inches	While photographs are the source of the artist's drawings, Richards does not project a slide or copy literally what is set before him on film. Familiar in great depth with this naturescape, Richards adds and subtracts as he sees fit, based on the needs of each drawing. Richards embraced the landscape that became his prime subject and captured it on film while long distance biking in the environs of New York.
In a series of small works, which the artist entitles Impromptu, Richards juxtaposes an image of a flower-from photographs he takes or from newspapers-with the richness of ground cover, leaves and branches. He combines what he calls "two realities, my created reality and the reality of the photograph as depicted by hand with pencil on paper."	Bill Richards, Impromptu 8, Morning Glory, 1999, graphite on paper, 20 x 18 inches
Bill Richards, Impromptu 9, Daffodil, 2000, graphite on paper, 20 x 18 inches	The flower, always larger in scale than what covers the earth, be it orchid, daffodil or peony, opens its petals wide, in the palest shades of the drawing, almost white. With the Impromptu series and its inclusion of flowers in full regalia, nature's cycle is poignantly rendered by the artist, birth, flowering, decay and rebirth.
Bill Richards was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1944. He received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; an M.A. from the University of Iowa and an M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Creative Artists Public Service programs.	Bill Richards, Impromptu 10, Orchid, 2001, graphite on paper, 20 x 18 inches
Bill Richards, Requiem, 1997, graphite on paper, 21 x 26 inches	Bill Richards' work has been exhibited at the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Boise Art Museum, Idaho; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; Oakland Museum of Art, California; Orlando Museum of Art, Florida; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Taipei Gallery, New York; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Whitney Museum of American Art, Stamford, Connecticut; and abroad at the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; Kunsthalle, Nuremberg; Salas de Expositiones de Bellas Arts, Madrid.
Bill Richards's work is represented in the collections of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Asheville Art Museum, North Carolina; Boise Art Museum, Idaho; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; and Takasawa Institute, Sokei Academy of Fine Arts, Tokyo.	Bill Richards, Vine and Branches, 1998, graphite on paper, 22 x 28 inches
Bill Richards, Winter Leaves, 2001, graphite on paper, 21 x 26 inches	The artist resides in New York City.
For further information and/or photographs, please call 212-966-6676	Bill Richards, Autumn Fugue, 2002, graphite on paper, 21 x 26 inches
Bill Richards, Faith in a Seed, 1999, graphite on paper, 21 x 26 inches	BILL RICHARDS' BIOGRAPHY
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